4′ – Cortes Torres nearly opened the scoring with a header off a free kick delivered by sophomore Lars Sund (Stavanger, Norway), but it went off the crossbar

13′ – Merrimack broke through following a corner kick. The service from Sund went to the far post, and took a deflection right to Briers. The senior captain struck a right-footed shot across the box and into the side netting to make it a 1-0 game

23′ – In a matter of seconds, seniors Connor O’Brien (Sandwich, Mass.) and Oscar Zepeda Cagide (Jalisco, Mexico) each had chances miss at the far post. The former flicked a header just wide from inside the six-yard box while the latter struck a shot from the top of the 18

35′ – The Yellow Jackets saw a cross take a deflection and nearly go into the net, but it popped off the crossbar for the Warriors defense to clear it away

45′ – In the waning seconds of the first half, after four bookings had already been made, the Yellow Jackets’ Lasse Olrik was given a red card forcing the visitors to play with 10 men

58′ – Cortes Torres nearly doubled the Merrimack advantage, but the senior was in an offside position when he finished a cross from Zepeda Cagide

74′ – After controlling the possession for the majority of the second half, the Warriors doubled their lead. Cortes Torres landed on the receiving end of a free kick from Sund, beating his defender to head a shot into the upper-90

Inside The Numbers

Merrimack improved to 5-0 in its last five quarterfinals contest, starting the streak with a 3-1 win over these same Yellow Jackets in 2012

Cortes Torres netted his team-leading sixth goal of the season, while moving within two points (14) of Sund of the team lead. Speaking of Sund, the set-piece extraordinaire is now tied for third in the NE-10 with eight helpers, notching his 16th point of the year

Tuesday’s victory marks Merrimack’s 14th win of the season, as the sit two away from tying the program’s single-season wins record (16)

After not scoring in his first 10 appearances of the season, Briers now has tallies in back-to-back games to bring his career total to 13

Shots (SOG): MER 14 (5) // AIC 6 (0)

Corners: MER 4 // AIC 0

Up NextMerrimack advances to host the semifinals on Friday night when the Warriors face No. 3 Le Moyne in a 7 p.m. tilt at Martone-Mejail Field.